The protagonist and title character Madoka is a gentle and friendly 14 year old girl. Living an ordinary life, Madoka has a loving family and is surrounded by good friends. One day she had a dream of a mysterious girl who was fighting an ominous creature. The next day, that girl in her dream - Akemi Homura - came to her class as a transfer student.

Official Info

A good-natured and ordinary eighth-grader. She is the health coordinator in her class.

Even her bow-wielding magical girl form projects an air of kind friendliness. Her choker bears an impressively-sized red gem.

Ms. Aoki’s Design Check!: I drew her keeping in mind that as the main character she needs to be average, but also an exceptionally good girl. Hence her puffy, high-placed twin tails. The design and color of her ribbons took a lot of work, but in the end calmed down to something simple.

Magical girl outfit: Madoka was drawn to be the very image of a magical girl. I added an almost fairytale-ish hints, so hopefully female viewers will be charmed by her as well. (Aoki)

Full of tiny frills, with ribbons arranged at the neck, waist, and on the shoes. It’s perfectly “cute”, and seemingly unsuited for combat, but…

School uniform: Designed to convey the classy image of a private girls’ school, while not being -too- normal. Its distinguishing point is the small hole at the nape of the neck. (Aoki)

Of the heroines shown here, Madoka has the most childish body. Her legs are clad in pure, virginal white over-knee socks.

Madoka and Mami are the only Magical Girls known who are never seen having a mark on any of their fingernails. Homura, Kyoko and Sayaka all have marks on their left middle fingers, matching the shape of the emblem of their respective Soul Gem.

Madoka is never seen with her Soul Gem in a ring form.

Madoka loves cats like Homura.

Yuuki Aoi (Madoka's VA) really likes Kyoko and she claimed that Kyoko is her wife. You can hear her confession in the Magical Girls Tea Party bonus CD.

Observation

Characterization

Madoka is a nice kid, somewhat naive due to being a teenager.

Friendly and gentle toward Homura, a new transfer student no matter which timeline.

Wanted to be helpful to other people.

Admired Mami for being strong and was severely affected by her death.

Constantly worried about Sayaka's safety and willing to face danger for her friend.

A level-headed person, capable of making decisions on her own, and is the most mature compared to other characters.

Didn't believe Homura is "totally evil" as she was told, and tried to understand her better based on what she observed.

Didn't wish to revive Mami, who is just a new acquaintance, but was ready to sacrifice herself for her best friend Sayaka. This added to the realistic aspect of Madoka's character.

Tried to prevent Sayaka and Kyoko's unnecessary fight, and pursued Sayaka to solve conflicts by negotiation instead of violence.

Looked for consultation from her mother without mentioning magic.

Can answer immediately to Kyubey that even if the Incubators have good reason to collect energy, they are still humanity's enemy. This is demonstrates her understanding of humanity.

Used the last grief seed to save Homura because she wanted the latter to prevent a tragic outcome (TL3).

Thought of a wish that would bring the most benefits to other people based on the info she had.

Madoka stood as a contrast to Sayaka's character. While both are good-hearted girls, Madoka never judges based on first impressions, never makes rash assumptions, and has the mentality to deal with truth.

Madoka's wishes always stemmed from her kindness and appeared to be the most selfless compared to other characters.

From what we know until now, she contracted with Kyubey in order to save a cat whom had just died in front of her (TL1), save Homura from Walpurgisnacht (TL4), and release Magical Girls in the past and future from their cursed fate of becoming witches (Episode 12).

Asked to accompany Sayaka on her witch hunt just so that if the latter was ever in danger, she could make a wish and rescue Sayaka. She nearly made this wish in Episode 8.

Madoka's kindness is one of the major reasons why Homura is so drawn to her. From Drama CD 1 "Memories of you", the reason Madoka became a Magical Girl in the first timeline is to save a cat which had been run over by a car. Madoka also treated Homura very nicely from the beginning, who at that time was being bullied. We also learn that whenever Madoka made a contract and become a Magical Girl, she would act much more confident since it gave her a sense of purpose. Homura's interventions during the course of the anime prevented this change.

According with Urobuchi, he made Junko a strong woman so Madoka would want to emulate her strength and courage.

It is possible that the reason Madoka feels so useless prior to becoming a Puella Magi, is that she consciously fails to measure to her own mother.

It is suggested that the reason Madoka is so miserable is that she wishes for power in order to be selfless so that she won't be miserable anymore. Kyubey uses this to manipulate Madoka's thinking into making her wish through her guilt. He tries to manipulate Madoka into a belief that she can be free from her misery by making a selfless wish. However, Kyubey knows that Madoka's motives would be selfish in nature so it would twist her wish, revealing Madoka's true and selfish nature.

Which is why Madoka realizes that her thinking was incorrect in the beginning and contemplates what to do to save Homura and her town in Episode 11. Madoka goes from wanting to be selfless for selfish reasons to wanting to be selfless for selflessness itself. By removing Madoka's selfish desire from her wish, she literally removes her self and her physical presence as a consequence.

Without the wish and the life experience as a Puella Magi, Madoka's character never grows and develops into a courageous heroine. However, her life experience as a scared teenage girl, constantly crying and mourning the death of so many, always wanting to do what's right yet feeling powerless, the failure of attempting to save friends and strangers, and the sorrow she feels for the victims of innocent girls deceived by a calculating cold alien allows Madoka to finally develops the courage to confront her fears to save Homura and the world, instead of succumbing to despair and running away. Madoka finally grows up, not as a character but as an adult. The scene with her mother in Episode 11 leaves that impression.

An argument can be said that Madoka has two ways to develop her courage. One is through Kyubey by magic (which is the easiest path); the other way is more difficult and hurtful, the painful life experience and lessons she receives through friends, family members, and from strangers. But the most influential character in Madoka's life would be her mother, her source of wisdom, courage, and strength.

In Episode 6, Junko and Madoka had a conversation on how difficult it is to do the right thing, even when no one is in the wrong (per say). Junko's advice was for Madoka to do something wrong to her friend to solve the problem, even if it means that her friend would hate her for it. In Episode 11 Junko confronts Madoka to stop her from getting into the danger of the storm, Madoka reminds her mother that she is a good girl and never does anything wrong but she tells her she needs to do this, a throwback to their earlier conversation. Madoka knows that what she is doing will worry her family but she also knows she must disobey her mother to save her family and her town. This conversation between Junko and Madoka allows Madoka to enter into the world of adult responsibility and she earns her mother's trust.

Important Plot Points

Episode 8: Kyubey claimed Madoka's power to be godlike, to the point where she could even change the laws of the universe if she wished for it.

Episode 10: In the first timeline, Madoka along with Mami saved Homura from a familiar. She died during the fight with Walpurgis Night. In the second timeline, Madoka turned into a witch for the first time, revealing to Homura the link between Magical Girls and Witches. In a later timeline, Madoka killed Mami in order to save Homura, as Mami lost control of herself and had just killed Kyoko. This is also the timeline in which Madoka asked Homura to go back in time to prevent her from becoming a Magical Girl. Madoka's power increased exponentially after every timeline. The first time showed she was an ordinary magical girl. In later timeline she had enough power to defeat Walpurgis in one shot, was capable of destroying the entire planet within 10 days in her witch form, and satisfied all Kyubey's energy quotas of the Earth.

Episode 11: Homura's time repeats had linked multiple parallel universes together with Madoka's fate as their center. With every reset, Homura would force yet another parallel universe to be centered around Madoka. The accumulated karma is the reason why Madoka's potential power is so great. Hearing the revelations from Kyubey regarding the history of Magical Girls, Madoka was deeply hurt and thus wanted to save these girls from despair.

Episode 12: Madoka wished to erase all witches in every dimension, in every timeline, with her own hands. This created a paradox because Madoka would eventually erase her own witch self, while she must continue to exist and destroy other witches. This paradox resulted in Madoka escaping the bounds of reality and ascending to godhood. Since Madoka never existed as a human in this new reality, she is no longer remembered by anyone, except for Homura. It has been suggested that Sayaka also remembers her in the new timeline as well, as Sayaka confesses to her in Episode 12 that she has caused her best friend a lot of trouble; this could be interpreted as Sayaka having learnt of her unfortunate fate of turning into a witch in the other timelines, an outcome which clearly inflicted a great deal of emotional hurt on Madoka.

Speculation

Theoretically there is also the danger that, should Madoka become extremely powerful and turn into a witch, her power may be enough to destroy not only Earth, but the entire universe.

INCREDIBLY unlikely. Kyubey's species is (if they can be trusted) trying to save the universe in the first place, not trying to destroy it. They wouldn't create something they can't take down.

Then again, Kyubey remarked in the fourth timeline that he didn't know Madoka would turn out to be so powerful. While in this timeline he probably knows (and definitely doesn't care) that the witch form of Madoka could destroy the Earth, he may not know the full extent of her power.

Magazine Article

In Kazumi Magica

Madoka's silhouette appeared once during Juubey's explanation about Magical Girl system. She also makes a single-panel cameo in the extra pages in the first volume of the collected edition.

In Oriko Magica

Madoka appears in Chapter 3, asking Homura to go home with her, along with Sayaka and Hitomi. She is well protected by Homura and isn't aware of Magical Girl system.

She appears in Chapter 4 for one page. She is shown with her friends Homura, Sayaka and Hitomi going out for snacks after school.

In chapters 5 through 7, Mitakihara Junior High was attacked by Oriko and Kirika. Oriko spoke to the school through the school's broadcast system, and seemed to give a threatening look to Madoka as she claimed she defeat a creature of ultimate despair that will descend upon them. As a witch's barrier forms over the school, Madoka is separated from her friends attacked by familiars. Homura saves her in time, but Madoka demands to know why she does not help the other students. Homura knows she cannot save everyone, and wanted to try to save Madoka anyway. Madoka apologized as Homura puts her in a protective barrier so familiars cannot attack her and left to defeat the perpetrators. Madoka escaped from the protective barrier created by Homura, and tried to help Homura with Sayaka and Hitomi. Madoka was Oriko's real target. The white magical girl wanted to kill her before she could contract and become a magical girl herself, and then the most powerful witch ever. She was killed by Oriko at the very end, when they were dying Oriko used a shard of Kirika's witch body to impale Madoka through the torso. Once Oriko died and the witch barrier was lifted, Hitomi and Sayaka mourning for the dead Madoka became visible.